The White Sox’s first spring training game of the year started off perfectly. After Juan Pierre walked, Gordon Beckham laced a single to put runners on first and second with nobody out and Adam Dunn coming up.

And then Pierre and Beckham took off running. Pierre was thrown out at third, and Clayton Kershaw struck out both Dunn and Konerko to end the inning.

The result isn’t what I’m concerned about. The execution isn’t what I’m concerned about. It’s the idea. …

Guillen did say that he would prefer to avoid a repeat of the Sox first inning when Juan Pierre was thrown out at third with no outs and Adam Dunn at the plate. Guillen admitted he told guys he wanted to be aggressive in spring training, but maybe not that aggressive.

“I hope he doesn’t do this during the season,” Guillen offered. “I hope it’s a spring training thing.”

February 27, 2011

Jake Peavy, RHP, White Sox — There are early signs of healing for Peavy, who suffered a detached lat muscle beneath his right shoulder. The White Sox will need him if they’re going to win the tough AL Central. If the White Sox underachieve and Peavy is healthy? “Trade bait for sure,’’ said an American League scout. “Though teams may come after [Mark] Buehrlefirst.’’

February 26, 2011

A feeling of near-normalcy has settled in for Peavy in his ongoing comeback from season-ending surgery last July to repair a detached latissimus dorsi muscle in his right posterior shoulder. Peavy believes that normalcy will jump up another level when he actually makes his first Cactus League start.

“I think we’re past the grueling part,” Peavy said. “Eight consecutive days and throwing every other day is grueling. Throwing 40 pitches and down, and 40 pitches the following day is tough. But we’re past all that with flying colors. I feel healthy.

“Just got done working out. There are no limitations on anything I’m doing, which is always a good sign.”

“Too bad that all the stuff we had between me and Kenny interrupted his career because he did a lot of bad things last year,” Guillen quipped. “We lied for him, we protected him. I’m the first manager in the history of baseball to give a guy a week off to take care of his kids when his father-in-law was sick. It wasn’t even his wife, it even wasn’t a (family) member. But it was out of respect I have for his family. I sent him home because he had to babysit his kids because his father-in-law was sick. I don’t think any manager is doing that. But coming from him, I expect that.”

“We don’t miss him,” Guillen said. “You ask 30 guys in there. By the way, I was asking for his phone number to talk him to about it, and nobody had his phone number. None of his (former) teammates had his phone number. That you can tell what happened. But (criticism of ) me, that’s fine. He wasn’t talking about the ballclub, he was talking about Ozzie and Kenny (Williams). I respect that. ”

“Thank God he wasn’t talking about the club. If Bobby was taking about the club, I would have been everywhere on ESPN because I will rip his guts. But he was talking about me. I can take that. Just be careful of what you say about Oney because Oney will say stuff he’s not supposed to be saying. That’s just a warning for him just in case somebody don’t call him. Just stay away and don’t name Oney for this because it will be pretty ugly.”

“First of all he can’t make any comments about last year because he was never in the clubhouse,” Guillen said. “He spent more time at his house than he did in the clubhouse. They told me about it. I didn’t read it yet. The only thing I can say is that I feel bad for him because I think the way we treated this kid, just the White Sox and myself, or our front-office people, we helped him a lot on the field and off the field.”

“Just worry about Boston, don’t worry about the White Sox,” Guillen said. “He has to worry about Boston and what he has to do for them. And I bet you (Red Sox manager) Tito Francona won’t put up with the (bleep) we put up with here. I have Tito’s number here to call him and say make sure you tell Bobby to worry about the Boston Red Sox and don’t worry about what happened here or whatever. We don’t miss him.

“Please, someone who knows [Jenks], please [tell him not to] talk about Oney,” Guillen said. “It’s going to be ugly. I talked to my wife about it, to make sure to tell Oney to let it go. It can [end] bad. Me? That’s OK. Kenny is OK with it—I talked to Kenny. But Oney? Stay away from Oney. He’s not a good kid. When you go to that point with him, Oney knows a lot about a lot of things. Make sure [Jenks] stays away from [Oney].”

“He had a lot of problems, but we were loyal to him by playing him. I was a very bad manager because I kept him as my closer when he couldn’t [close]. He has to look [at] himself in the mirror.”

“I’m very sad,” Guillen said. “I’m not even mad about it. I’m very sad about the way he thinks about us. Am I going to say anything bad about him? I’m not going to waste my time—he’s not part of my program. It’s very sad because he should look at himself in the mirror, and all the things he said in the paper, to realize what he said. Like I said in January, if there was one player I ever managed, I did more stuff for him than anybody else, on the field and off the field.

“He did a lot of bad things last year. We lied for him. We protect[ed] him.”

Trying to catch on with the Sox as a reserve outfielder, Milledge is already impressed with the way Guillen goes about his business.

“I think he’s a real, real honest guy,” said Milledge, a nonroster invitee. “He’s not afraid to express his feelings and he reminds me of my dad a lot. Don’t take anything for granted.”

Guillen has always taken pride in the way he treats every player the same, and Milledge has fallen right into line.

“It doesn’t matter if you’re the highest-paid player or a nonroster invitee,” Milledge said. “Black, white, Latin, it doesn’t matter. He treats everybody the same and what you see is what you get. Just play the game hard, respect the game and you won’t have any problems.”

‘‘I kind of like what Humber’s doing,’’ Cooper said. “My thing is, give us the ammunition that we need to keep you around. If you attack the strike zone, if you get ahead, that’s the ammo. If you’re not — well, sorry.’’

‘‘I’m really happy with what I’m seeing,’’ Cooper said. ‘‘But what often happens with the young guys is they look good now, but when . . . hitters step in there, all of a sudden they get distracted.’’

Joel Sherman of The New York Post reports that the Yankees “have told their scouts to bear down on several teams they think could have starters available” in a trade this summer. The teams they are targeting include the Braves, Angels, A’s, White Sox, and Cardinals according to Sherman.

And yet, Quentin still represents a potential value this upcoming season. Bloomberg Sports also projects 29 HRs, 65 RBIs, 4 SBs, and a .268 AVG for Quentin in 2011, which translates as the 70th best player in standard 5×5 leagues. As for where he’s going in drafts, Quentin’s average draft spot is 157th overall.

And remember, that’s just with 459 at-bats. Quentin is the only non-catcher in Blooomberg’s top 100 with less than 500 at bats. …

White Sox right-hander Jake Peavy said he felt fine on Thursday a day after throwing a 40-pitch side session. Peavy is penciled in on March 4 to make his first start of the spring in Chicago’s fifth Cactus League game — against the Angels in Tempe, Ariz.

That would place Peavy on target to start the fifth game of the regular season on April 6 against the Royals at Kansas City, barring any regression from surgery this past season to repair a detached muscle in his right shoulder.

“I’m far ahead of where I thought I would be at this point,” Peavy said. “But I can’t push it and I’ve got to be cautious.”

February 23, 2011

Jake Peavy looked strong on the mound today, throwing 40 pitches and earning at least one, “wow, very good” from pitching coach Don Cooper. Peavy threw about 12 breaking balls, facing Omar Vizquel, Lastings Milledge and Eduardo Escobar, and reported no abnormal discomfort afterward. The hurler is due to scale the mound again on Saturday for a workout to be determined. Cooper as much as said he saw more than expected from Peavy today. Ramon Castro, who caught Peavy’s session, thought that the fireballer’s breaking stuff was season-ready, but he estimated his fastball at around 70-80%.

Those reins became a little looser on Wednesday during Peavy’s second 40-pitch live bullpen session in the past three days. Once again, the outing was split up into two “innings,” with Peavy throwing 20 pitches, sitting down and giving way to Gavin Floyd, and then coming back to throw 20 more.

Of those 40 pitches, Peavy estimated 10 or 12 of those were of the breaking ball variety. It marked a significant climb from just the handful of off-speed pitches Peavy threw on Monday.

Having these breaking balls look crisp and sharp becomes another bonus in this climb to a regular-season return.

“It looked like the old Peavy, breaking ball stuff,” said White Sox catcher Ramon Castro, who was behind the plate Wednesday when Peavy threw to hitters Lastings Milledge, Omar Vizquel and Eduardo Escobar. “With the fastball he’s not there yet, but he’s going to get there.”

“Now he is throwing the ball better,” said White Sox pitching coach Don Cooper of Peavy. “He probably went up a notch in intensity. He certainly is doing what everybody else is doing. It’s a credit to the surgeons, Jake and Herm [Schneider, White Sox head athletic trainer], following up on all the things he is supposed to be doing.”